Mannerisms

MEDEA’s problem is that if it starts spending its budget on nanotechnology too early, it will deprive European companies of the funding they need to underpin market success in 4/5 years time.

If they start funding nanotechnology R&D too late, European companies may become uncompetitive when the market for nanotechnology takes off.

At the beginning of the decade, the Americans put billions into nanotechnology R&D, and were criticized for depriving conventional microelectronics initiatives of funding as a result.

At the same time US venture capitalists put well over $150m into nanotechnology start-up companies. VCs usually work on a three to four year pay-back time-frame, and none of those investments is paying back. Indeed quite a few nanotechnology IPOs have been scrapped. The VCs have lost a bundle of money.

Last year at the annual MEDEA Forum I asked when they’d start on nanotechnology R&D and the answers were very Ho-Hum. This year I asked the same question, and was told they had set up a scientific committee to consider it.

It’s going to be a difficult judgment to make, but MEDEA’s judgments have been excellently timed in the past.

MEDEA got European companies into programmable platforms long before companies in other regions, and that has helped produce Europe’s premium positions in wireless, automotive and smartcard electronics.

I wouldn’t be surprised if MEDEA make the right call on the timing for the commercialisation of nanotechnology. So, watch MEDEA's decision and you could well discover the exactly right moment to invest in the nanotechnology sector.